Improvement in portable railway-tracks



I. TURL. Portable Railway-Track.

No. 217,755.- Patented July 22,1879

ii 1 w WITNESSES INVENTOR GTTORNEYS.

N.PETERS, PHoTuLflHoGfiAPnER, WASHINGTON D C UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

JOHN TURL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT lN PORTABLE RAILWAY-TRACKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 217,755, dated July 22, 1879; application filed May 10, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OHQI TURL, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new Improvement in Portable Railroad- Tracks, of which the following is a specification.

Figure 1 is a top view of a portion of my improved track, partly in section to show the construction. Fig.2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a detail horizontal section of the adjacent ends of two rails enlarged.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

The object of this invention is to furnish an improved portable railroad-track which shall be so constructed that one or more sections may be readily detached for convenience in putting in a switch or a curve without its being necessary to move all the sections of the track, and which at the same time will be firm and reliable.

The invention consists in the combination of the tongues and the socket-bars with the outer side of the ends of the rails of the track-sections, as hereinafter fully described.

A represents the rails of the track. The rails of each pair are connected by cross-bars B, to which they are secured by rivets, whose heads clamp the bases of the said rails. To the outer sides of the webs of the alternate ends of the rails of each section are attached, by bolts or rivets, tongues O, and to the outer side of the webs of the other alternate ends of the rails of each section are attached bars or keepers D. The bars D are made with an ofiset to form a socket to receive the tongues O. The outer ends of the tongues G are beveled upon one side and both edges, so that they may readily enter the spaces between the socket-bars D and the webs of the rails A. The offsets of the socket-bars D are inclined at such an angle that the bottom of the sockets formed by the said bars and the web of the rails is wedge-shaped, so that the tongues O wedge themselves into the said sockets as the ends of the rails come in contact, and may thus form a firm connection, but may be loose when only partly pushed into place.

With this construction, by raising the end of any section of the track, the tongues and socket-bars O D will slip apart and the end of the adjacent section will drop to the ground, so that the track can be separated at any desired point by simply raisin g the end of the section at that point. With this construction the inner sides of the rails A will be left entirely free, so that the flanges of the wheels will be unobstructed as the cars are drawn along the track.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 'as new and desire to secure by Letters Patcut-- The combination of the tongues O and the socket-bars D with the outer sides of the ends of the rails A of the track-sections, substantially as herein shown and described.

JOHN TURL.

Witnesses:

JAMES T. GRAHAM, O. SEDGWIOK. 

